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The Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) and the Assembly of Healthcare Professional Associations (AHPA) have thrown the nation’s health system into a state of uncertainty by announcing an indefinite nationwide strike that kicked off at midnight on November 14, 2025. Their core grievance is a twelve‑year delay in implementing the adjusted Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS), a demand that dates back to 2014 when the government introduced a parallel adjustment for doctors without extending the same benefit to the broader health workforce. The unions say this breach of the 2009 Collective Bargaining Agreement has left millions of workers feeling short‑changed and has eroded morale across public hospitals and clinics .
At a packed press briefing in Abuja, JOHESU National Chairman Comrade Kabiru Ado Minjibir explained that the decision was not taken lightly. After a series of failed negotiations, a memorandum of understanding signed on 29 October 2024, and repeated assurances from senior officials, the unions felt they had no choice but to withdraw services from all federal health institutions. State councils have been instructed to serve their respective governments with 15‑day strike notices, in line with labour laws, and the national leadership has pledged full support for any state‑level actions that follow .
The strike comes at a particularly tense moment for Nigeria’s health sector. While JOHESU’s members are downing tools, the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) is already on an indefinite strike over unpaid hazard allowances and deteriorating working conditions. The overlapping actions threaten to cripple emergency services, outpatient clinics, and even routine surgeries, leaving patients scrambling for alternatives in private facilities that are already stretched thin. The unions acknowledge the inconvenience to the public but stress that the government’s inaction has left them with no other recourse.
Government officials have tried to shift blame onto procedural delays, pointing to the reconstitution of the Presidential Committee on Salaries as a necessary step. Yet JOHESU contends that even after the committee was re‑established, the CONHESS report submitted in 2022 was not given priority until the very last 48 hours before the strike deadline. They argue that successive administrations have repeatedly ignored the High‑Level Body’s recommendations, despite promises made during a June 2023 meeting with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, where a two‑man delegation was assured that the issue would be resolved.
As the industrial action enters its second day, there is still a glimmer of hope for a swift resolution. Both sides have reiterated their openness to dialogue, and the unions have promised to keep communication channels open throughout the strike. They warn, however, that any further delay could push the dispute into a prolonged stalemate, with far‑reaching consequences for health service delivery and national stability. For now, Nigerians are left watching closely, hoping that the government will act quickly to restore the salary structure that health workers have fought for over more than a decade.
